Op-Ed: Trump Ignored More Than ‘Just’ Pride Month, He Ignored It After Marriage Equality and Pulse

‘Trump’s Silence on Pride Month now That he’s Become President Isn’t Just Telling, it’s Dangerous’

As the first week of June draws to a close, Donald Trump and his White House still have yet to acknowledge LGBT Pride Month. And while that may not come as a surprise, that doesn’t mean it’s trivial.

Four days ago, the White House took the time to issue five proclamations about June on May 31st. First, that June would be known as “Great Outdoors Month,” but others included “National Ocean Month” and even—because why not?—“National Home Ownership Month.”

That same day, Donald Trump doubled that amount in his own, 140-character-or-less personal proclamations—with ten tweets in total, ranging from his ridiculous attempt at disguising a typo to, as if we hadn’t held an election, attempting to slander Hillary Clinton.

Four percent of Americans reportedly identify as LGBT, a figure that grows ever-closer to Kinsey’s “1-in-10” scale. With our allies, a much larger number of Americans understand the importance of recognizing June as Pride Month because of that fact.

But not Donald Trump, who promised to be a leader for “all” Americans.

There would not only be no White House proclamation this year recognizing Pride Month, there will be no White House events honoring it. And that matters.

We can’t let this lack of recognition go unnoticed. Because yes, although Pride Month is “just” symbolic, so too is the White House’s silence. Even McDonald’s and Britney Spears have spoken up.

Yes, in today’s political climate, it’s easy to move from what feels like one American tragedy to the next. The dust never forms on one grievance or scandal from this administration before the next appears, and arguably by design, things of great impact are glossed over as yesterday’s less-terrifying, less-gut-wrenching news.

And it’s true that no Republican has recognized June as Pride Month, though only one Republican President has held office since Bill Clinton first recognized it in 1999. 

But it’s also true that Donald Trump is the first Republican president to hold office following the Supreme Court’s decision to view our community as equal, recognizing marriage equality as the law of the land.

And truer still that in eight days, we’ll mark the one-year anniversary of the Pulse Massacre, the hate crime targeting the LGBT community that claimed the lives of 49 people in Orlando, injuring 68 more. A tragedy which remains the worst terror attack on American soil since 9/11 and the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Barack Obama declared June 2016 as Pride Month prior to the attack in an eloquent display—making this Pride Month the first since the tragedy.

Following the attack in Orlando, then-candidate Donald Trump sought desperately to position himself as pro-gay, pandering for the LGBT vote and lying to the American people about the Obama administration’s policies on LGBT rights. (Pro-LGBT policies that Trump has since actively been working to dismantle.)

But the silence on Pride Month now that he’s president isn’t just telling, it’s dangerous. The LGBT community has finally been recognized as equal in the eyes of the law, at least on the front of marriage equality, but in 2017 alone, more than 100 anti-LGBT bills in 20 states have been introduced.

Transgender people are being slaughtered in modern America, particularly transgender women of color. Slaughtered. Decimated.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24, and the rate of suicide attempts is four times greater for LGB youth and two times greater for questioning youth than that of their heterosexual peers. And one in six—one in six—students grades 9-12 have seriously considered killing themselves.

The LGBT community is here. We exist. Some of us, somehow, even voted for Donald Trump, who has been all but silent on these matters. (But we’re all human and we all make mistakes, I guess.)

Marriage equality may have confirmed for the United States that love is love, but Pulse reaffirmed that hate can be hate. We’re in danger. The statistics above only prove that, to say nothing of LGBT people being targeted across the globe.

(And no, Ivanka Trump’s well-wishes for Pride on Twitter do not excuse the silence. She isn’t the president, and it only amplifies her silence on the matters above.)

If marriage equality and Pulse have taught us anything, it’s that while Donald Trump may be silent, and may remain so, we can’t afford to. We must use our voices now, louder than ever before. 

It’s our duty to speak for those that can’t. For the LGBT men and women who fought for our right to marry but never saw it, and for those that died at the hands of a madman in Orlando. For the transgender women dying in our streets and for the LGBT children facing an onslaught of attacks by our government.

His silence is his acceptance. Ours would be our undoing. Speak up. Be heard. Be proud. Resist.

And Happy Pride.

 

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